Law Ministry, Planning Commission support Oil Ministry plan on RIL

New Delhi: The Law Ministry and the Planning Commission have backed an Oil Ministry proposal to allow Reliance Industries to almost double the price of gas from April in return for a USD 90 million bank guarantee every quarter.

The bank guarantee, which will be equivalent to the incremental revenue that RIL will get from the new gas price, will be encashed if it is proved that the company hoarded gas or deliberately suppressed production at the main Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) fields in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block.

"Both the Planning Commission and the Law Ministry are agreeable to the proposal set out in a draft cabinet note sent to them for comments," an Oil Ministry official said.

The bank guarantee will cover the difference between the current gas price of USD 4.2 per million British thermal units and the rate of USD 8.2-8.4 per million Btu, which will come into effect from April 1.

"We are awaiting Finance Ministry comments before a final note is taken to the Cabinet," the official said, adding that the new gas price, which will be applicable uniformly to all producers, will be notified thereafter.

The Oil Ministry had previously proposed that RIL be forced to sell gas from the D1&D3 fields at the current rate until it is proved that the 80 percent fall in output at the fields was due to natural reasons or it makes up for the shortfall in production since 2010-11.

This would have meant pronouncing RIL guilty even before trial, he said.

The veracity of allegations that RIL hoarded gas in anticipation of a price hike can be established by arbitration or a third-party expert, a process that can take 1-2 years.

"If we forced RIL to sell gas at USD 4.2 and at a later date it was established that output had fallen due to geological reasons and there was no hoarding, then who would make good the difference between USD 4.2 and the price they are actually eligible from April 1, 2014?"

The official said the government cannot ask consumers to pay a higher price for gas consumed in the period taken to decide on the hoarding charge.

The government, he said, could have charged customers the higher price from April 1 and paid RIL the lower rate while keeping the difference in an escrow account until the issue was sorted out. However, the production sharing contract does not provide for escrow accounts.

The bank guarantee will be calculated quarterly as the gas price will change every three months, based on average international hub prices and the rate at which LNG (liquefied natural gas) is imported in India.

The bank guarantee will be about USD 90 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014-15, considering an anticipated output of less than 8 million metric standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) from D1&D3, after netting the excess royalty that RIL will pay at the higher price.